About MCPC

MCPC was established in 1993 with the desire to establish a conservative, evangelical, reformed and Presbyterian congregation in the South Bend area.

History

MCPC was established in 1993 with the desire to establish a conservative, evangelical, reformed and Presbyterian congregation in the South Bend area. From the start, the idea was to plant a congregation in the Granger area (a location accessible to communities throughout the Michiana area [southern Michigan + northern Indiana = Michiana]) that could serve as a mother church for congregations throughout the region. In 1996 the church purchased ten acres on Cleveland Road, near exit 83 on the Indiana Toll Road.

Our current pastor, Peter Wallace, came in 2001, and three years later we built our building. MCPC has had a significant ministry to Notre Dame students, and in 2011 started Collegiate Christian Fellowship, a campus ministry at Indiana University, South Bend. Since 2007 we have conducted Michiana Covenant Academy, a tutorial service that provides courses for home school families. Read More About Michiana Covenant Academy.

Beliefs

As a congregation in the Presbyterian Church of America, we are rooted in the Reformed wing of the western catholic tradition. Jesus promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church, and so we trace our history back to the apostles through the early fathers and the medieval church.

We demonstrate this in our regular use of the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds — the great early statements of the Christian faith — as well as our use of many patristic and medieval prayers and hymns in our worship.

At the time of the Reformation, the Presbyterian church was simply the Church of Scotland — the church of John Knox, Samuel Rutherford, and John Witherspoon — and as such we affirm the Westminster Confession of Faith, a doctrinal statement drawn up in the 1640s.

We demonstrate this in our regular use of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, a summary of Christian doctrine which we use for instruction and training in the basics of the Christian faith.

Father, we thank you who has planted
your holy name within our hearts.
Knowledge and faith and life immortal
Jesus your Son to us imparts.

You, Lord, did make all for your pleasure,
did give man food for all his days,
giving in Christ the bread eternal;
yours is the power, yours the praise.

As grain once scattered on the hillsides,
was in the bread we break made one,
so may your worldwide church be gathered
into your kingdom by your Son.

From the Didache, translated by Francis Bland Tucke

Westminster Shorter Catechism

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

Q. 3. What do the scriptures principally teach?
A. The scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.

Q. 20. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?
A. God having, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a redeemer.

Q. 42. What is the sum of the ten commandments?
A. The sum of the ten commandments is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbor as ourselves.

Q. 85. What does God require of us that we may escape his wrath and curse due to us for sin?
A. To escape the wrath and curse of God due to us for sin, God requires of us faith in Jesus Christ, repentance unto life, with the diligent use of all the outward means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption.

Q. 100. What does the preface of the Lord’s prayer teach us?
A. The preface of the Lord’s prayer, which is, “Our Father in heaven,” teaches us to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father able and ready to help us; and that we should pray with and for others.

Catechism Quiz

A. These words “before me” in the first commandment teach us that God, who sees all things, takes notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other god. (Psalm 44:20, 21; Romans 1:24, 25)